SAN DIEGO STATE ATHLETICS / What’s Next? : Turnover of Athletic Directors Blamed on Lack of Autonomy

The scene was Thursday’s press conference and the question regarded the autonomy of San Diego State athletic directors. SDSU President Thomas Day had been asked if it was true that Mary Alice Hill, who was dismissed by Day as the Aztecs’ athletic director, had been nothing more than a figurehead.

“False,” Day said adamantly. “My style of management gives people wide flexibility and freedom in conducting their duties. That goes throughout the university. I have certain standards and expectations, but I try and give people responsibility, define limits and get the hell out of their way.”

But now, for the fourth time in his seven years at SDSU, Day is looking for a athletic director. And how much freedom Aztec athletic directors have in carrying out their duties is a bigger question than ever.

“How many athletic directors have they had the last eight or nine years?” asked a former member of the athletic department who requested anonymity. “They’ve all had the same problem. They didn’t have the autonomy they thought they had.”

With job autonomy again being called into question, who will the university turn to fill its vacant A.D. job?

Day said an interim athletic director will be named soon. He said he does not plan to initiate a search for a new permanent athletic director for several weeks, and he has no target date for when that person will be hired.

Two of the rumored contenders for the interim position have athletic department experience--athletic faculty representative Jim Malik, a chemistry professor, and Bob Rinehart, a biology professor who established the student-athlete academic support system three years ago.

The interim candidate selectedmay provide a clue to Day’s priorities for a permanent athletic director, who is expected to come from outside the university.

The controversy involving the admission of SDSU basketball recruits has intensified Day’s concern for academic scrutiny.

“It’s incumbent on coaches to know the academic records of students they recruit,” Day said. “If they don’t know, they should find out.”

The coaches are obviously concerned with the A.D. vacancy, and want the individual selected to replace Hill to be capable of unifying the athletic department.

“We need to be pulling together here,” basketball Coach Smokey Gaines said. “It creates problems when you’re not pulling together. The guy should get the department on the right track. We need someone who the coaches will respect.”

Bob McCray, president of the Aztec Athletic Foundation, agreed.

McCray: “We need a good, solid strong leader type who can pull the factions, whoever they may be, together. That person needs a certain amount of managerial skills. It goes without saying you’d love to have someone with charisma, but they have to be strong enough to pull the program together again.”

SDSU has a lot of attractions to offer a prospective athletic director: the weather, the city itself and Division 1 status of the athletic program being among the primary ones. But the turmoil, rapid turnover in the program and debt which Day estimated at $500,000 are offsetting negative factors.

“Being an athletic director is a very difficult assignment at this time,” former athletic director Gene Bourdet said. “There are more programs than the funds to support them. The biggest problem during my time at SDSU was the support of football, treading a thin line in getting people out to the ballpark.

“If the community wants to have SDSU make it as a Division 1 school, they will have to make it possible by supporting football and men’s basketball. Don’t think it can continue to be Division 1 unless the community supports it.”

Cedric Dempsey, another former Aztec athletic director, said SDSU faces a unique problem of “trying to operate a Division 1 program in the state university system. Frequently, decisions are not campus decisions. The state university system provides a unique set of problems to deal with.”

The apparent lack of autonomy will be another negative factor weighed by prospective A.D. candidates.

At most universities, including SDSU, the athletic director reports to the president. But even Day admits he is more interested and more involved in athletics than many other presidents.

“The last couple of weeks I’ve probably had to spend 70% of my time with athletics,” Day said.

These weeks have obviously been much busier than usual. But Day said he usually spends an average of 5 to 10% of his time dealing with the athletic department.

“That’s a lot, lot more than most presidents spend,” Day said. “I would hope the president represents the best interest of the university. I’m strongly interested and in contact with the program. I certainly have been since I came here.”

Has Day been too involved in the athletic program?

“I don’t think so,” Day said.

What do some other people on campus think?

“Coaches in general feel she (Hill) doesn’t have the authority she needs to run the program,” said gymnastic Coach Ed Franz before Hill was relieved of her job. “She’s an athletic director with no real authority or autonomy to run a program the way she thinks it should be run. “

Said Bourdet, who served as an assistant to Day after being athletic director: “I felt President Day was very supportive and interested in matters of athletics. That’s a positive thing. I found him available. Many presidents are involved with other matters, and don’t get involved with athletics. Dr. Day is a fan on a broad base. He likes sports.”

Day is at just about every football and basketball game. At times, he said he has to hold himself back from screaming at officials.

“After all,” he said, “how would it look if the president got a technical foul?”

Said Bill Phillips, physical education professor and president of the local chapter of the California Faculty Assn.: “I did not have any dealings with her (Hill’s) office, but my observations are that she has had virtually no power. Day controls the athletic department. She has virtually been handcuffed in the way the thing has been structured.

“Who’s calling the shots?”